Expert Witness

Name: People v. Stamps
Case #: A142424
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 4
Opinion Date: 09/30/2016
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, Confront/Cross-exam, Evidence, Expert Witness, Hearsay

Expert testimony that pills possessed by defendant matched pills displayed on a website called "Ident-A-Drug" was inadmissible hearsay under People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal.4th 665. During Stamps' drug possession trial, the court permitted a criminologist to testify as an…

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Name: People v. Wright
Case #: B269705
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 10/24/2016
  • Categories: Civil Commitments, Evidence, Expert Witness, Insufficiency/Sufficiency of, SVP

Commitment as a sexually violent predator (SVP) reversed where sole evidence that defendant suffered from a requisite mental disorder was an expert's flawed testimony. Wright was committed as an SVP after his conviction for oral copulation of a child under…

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Name: People v. Sotelo-Urena
Case #: A144021
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 2
Opinion Date: 10/26/2016
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Evidence, Expert Witness

Homeless man's murder conviction reversed where trial court excluded expert evidence that the homeless experience heightened sensitivity to perceived threats of violence, which would have supported self-defense claims. Sotelo-Urena, a homeless man, stabbed Bloom to death. During police interviews, Sotelo-Urena…

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Name: People v. Sibrian
Case #: A143369
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 09/07/2016
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, Expert Witness, Justification for act: homicide or assault

During trial for resisting an officer, court did not abuse its discretion by allowing expert testimony concerning excessive force where the arresting officer used more than bare hands. During Sibrian's trial for resisting an officer (Pen. Code, §69), the prosecution…

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Name: People v. Garlinger
Case #: C074480
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 06/01/2016
  • Categories: Evidence, Expert Witness, Scientific Evidence

Expert testimony that cell phone tower data could be used to establish caller's approximate location did not rely on a new scientific methodology and was therefore not subject to the standard set forth in People v. Kelly (1976) 17 Cal.3d…

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Name: Gimenez v. Ochoa
Case #: 14-55681
Court: US Court of Appeals
District 9 Cir
Opinion Date: 05/09/2016
  • Categories: Evidence, Expert Witness, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Right to Counsel, Scientific Evidence

Scientific debate regarding the validity of the "triad-only" test to detect shaken baby syndrome (SBS) does not constitute a repudiation of that test in the scientific community such that it undermines defendant's murder conviction. Defendant was convicted of murdering his…

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Name: People v. Herrera
Case #: B261842
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 6
Opinion Date: 05/16/2016
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Defenses, Evidence, Expert Witness, Mental

Trial court's improper restriction on defendant's use of psychiatric testimony regarding his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires reversal of murder conviction. A jury convicted defendant of first degree murder and found that he personally used a knife (Pen. Code, §§…

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Name: United States v. Rosales-Aguilar
Case #: 14-50315
Court: US Court of Appeals
District 9 Cir
Opinion Date: 04/12/2016
  • Categories: Admitting/Excluding, Areas Constitutional Law, Evidence, Expert Witness, Interrogations & Confessions, Involuntary/Coerced, Miranda v. Arizona, Right Against Self-incrim

Trial court did not err by allowing prosecution to impeach expert witness with defendant's voluntary but un-Mirandized statements to law enforcement. Rosales was charged with illegal reentry into the U.S. His defense was that he lacked the specific intent to…

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Name: People v. Nicholes
Case #: C077098
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 04/20/2016
  • Categories: Evidence, Expert Witness

Gang enhancement stricken because prosecution failed to show that two Norteño gang subsets had an associational or organizational connection that united them, as required by People v. Prunty (2015) 62 Cal.4th 59. A jury found Nicholes guilty of attempted voluntary…

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Name: People v. Brown
Case #: A141172
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 4
Opinion Date: 02/25/2016
  • Categories: Crimes, Evidence, Expert Witness, General Principles, Jury Instructions, Lesser-Included Offenses

Trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct sua sponte on assault (Pen. Code, § 240) as a lesser included offense of using force or violence to resist an officer (Pen. Code, § 69). Brown, a 67-year-old man, was…

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